International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research

Volume 4 Issue 5, 390 - 394, 2015, ISSN:- 23198656

Skip Graph in Distributed Environments: A Review

Upinder Kaur
Department of Computer Science and Application
Kurukshetra University
Kurukshetra, India

Pushpa Rani Suri

Department of Computer Science and Application
Kurukshetra University
Kurukshetra, India

Abstract: As we see that the world has become closer and faster and with the enormous growth of distributed networks like p2p,
social networks, overlay networks, cloud computing etc. Theses Distributed networks are represented as graphs and the
fundamental component of distributed network is the relationship defined by linkages among units or nodes in the network.
Major concern for computer experts is how to store such enormous amount of data especially in form of graphs. There is a need
for efficient data structure used for storage of such type of data should provide efficient format for fast retrieval of data as and
when required, in this types of networks. Although adjacency matrix is an effective technique to represent a graph having few or
large number of nodes and vertices but when it comes to analysis of huge amount of data from site likes like face book or twitter,
adjacency matrix cannot do this. In this paper, we study the existing application of a special kind of data structure, skip graph
with its various versions which can be efficiently used for storing such type of data resulting in optimal storage, space utilization
retrieval and concurrency.
Keywords: Skip List, Skip Graph, and Distributed Networks, Efficient and fast search

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 SKIPLIST
A skip list [3] is an ordered data structure based on a
succession of linked lists with geometrically
decreasing numbers of items. The deterministic
versions
of
skip
list
have
guaranteed properties whereas randomized skip lists
only offer high probability performance. This height
(Hn) is the maximum length of a search path for any
key from the top of the skip list. Devroye has proved
that this height Hn is of order log n [10].

Figure 1 - Example of Skip List [13]

1.2 SKIP GRAPH

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The skip graph, introduced by Aspnes and Shah in [2, 4], is

a variant of the skip list, designed to perform better in a
distributed environment. In a skip graph, the whole data
structure can be distributed among a large number of nodes,
and the structure provides good load balancing and fault
tolerance properties.
As defined by author in [6] Skip graphs are data structures
with similar functionality to binary trees or skip lists,
permitting efficient insertion, removal and searches among
elements, but they are best suitable for P2P distributed
environments. Skip Graphs are composed of tower of
increasingly refined linked lists in various levels, each one
with no head and doubly linked. shown in fig from [6].
Skip graphs provide the full functionality of a balanced tree
in a distributed system where elements are stored in
separate nodes that may fall at any time as described in [3].
They are designed for use in searching peer-to-peer
networks, and by providing the ability to perform queries
based on key ordering, they improve on existing search
tools that provide only hash table functionality. As per
analysis done by James and Shah in [2, 3] on skip lists or
other tree data structures, skip graphs are highly resilient,
tolerating a large fraction of failed nodes without losing
connectivity. In addition, constructing, inserting new
elements into, searching a skip graph and detecting and
repairing errors in the data structure introduced by node
failures can be done using simple and straightforward
algorithms. During past years interesting variants of skip

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Volume 4 Issue 5, 390 - 394, 2015, ISSN:- 23198656
graphs have been studied, like skip nets [7], skip webs [1]
or rainbow skip graphs [6].

any given time only a finite prefix of the membership

vector of any node needs to be generated.
The delete operation When node u wants to leave the
network, it deletes itself in parallel from all lists above
level 0 and then deletes itself from level 0.

3. SKIP GRAPH IN DIFFERENT

AREAS:

Figure 2 - Example of Skip Graph [13]

2.

MODELS

AND

NOTATIONS

In a skip graph, each node represents a resource to be

searched where node x holds two fields: the first is a
key, which is arbitrary and may be the resource name.
Nodes are ordered according to their keys. For
notational convenience the keys are the considered to
be integers 1 , 2, . . . , n. Since the keys have no
function in the construction other than to provide an
ordering and a target for searches there is no loss of
generality. The second field is a membership vector
m(x) which is for convenience treated as an infinite
string of random bits chosen independently by each
node. In practice, it is enough to generate an O(log n)bit prefix of this string with overwhelming probability.
The nodes are ordered lexicographically by their keys
in a circular doubly-linked list
The
insert
operation
A new node u knows some introducing node v in
the network that will help it to join the network. Node
u inserts itself in one linked list at each level till it
finds itself in a singleton list at the topmost level. The
insert
operation
consists
of
two
stages:
(1) Node u starts a search for itself from v to find

and links to them.

(2) Node u finds the closest nodes s
its neighbours at level 0,

and y at each level W _ 0, s < u < y, such that m(u) _

(W + 1) = m(s) & (W + 1) = m(y) _ (W + 1), if they
exist, and links to them at level W + 1. Because each
existing node v does not require m(v)(W+1) unless
there exists another node u such that m(v) _ (W + 1)
= m(u) _ (W + 1), it can delay determining its value
until a new node arrives asking for its value; thus at

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Skip index [15]: It is a distributed high-dimensional index

structure based on peer-to-peer overlay routing. A new
routing scheme is used to lookup data keys in the
distributed index, which guarantees logarithmic lookup and
maintenance cost, even in the face of skewed
datasets.efficient performance in dynamic load balancing
and handling complex queries.
Skip Webs [1]: Skip webs a framework for designing
randomized distributed data structure that improves
previous skip-graph/SkipNet approaches and extends their
area of applicability to multi-dimensional data sets. The
queries allowed include one-dimensional nearest neighbor
queries, string searching over fixed alphabets, and multidimensional searching and point location. Our structure,
which we call skip-webs, matches the O(log n/ log log n)
expected query time of NoN skip-graphs [13, 14] for onedimensional data, while maintaining the O(log n) memory
size and expected query cost of traditional skip graphs [3]
and SkipNet [10]. We also introduce a bucketed version of
our skip-web structure, which improves the overall space
bounds of our structure, while also significantly improving
the expected query and update times.
Rainbow Skip Graph [8]: this is the first peer-to-peer data
structure that simultaneously achieves high fault-tolerance,
constant-sized nodes, and fast update and query times for
ordered data. It supports successor queries on a set of n
items using O(log n) messages with high probability, an
improvement over the expected O(log n) messages of the
family tree. The structure should be able to adjust to the
failure of some nodes, repairing the structure at small cost
in such casesThe structure should support fast queries and
insertions/deletions, in terms of the number of rounds of
communication and number of messages that must be
exchanged in order to complete requested operationsThe
structure should support queries that are based on an
ordering of the data, such as nearest-neighbor searches and
range queries.
Inverted skip graph [16] : Inverted skip graphs are
capable of processing mobile node updates within the skip
graph with fewer skip graph messages. In a 10,000 node
network, inverted skip graphs process a mobile node's
position update using a fourth of the messages (on average)

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Volume 4 Issue 5, 390 - 394, 2015, ISSN:- 23198656
a standard skip graph requires for the same task. When a
node changes geographical locations in the context of a
standard skip graph, a query is required to re-assign the
node in the proper position in the base list in Lo. inverted
skip graph outperforms the standard skip graph, mobility
performance and query execution,
SkipNet [12]: SkipNet also employs a background
stabilization mechanism that gradually updates all
necessary routing table entries when a node fails. Any
query to a live, reachable node will still succeed during this
time; the stabilization mechanism simply restores optimal
routing Performing range queries in SkipNet is therefore
equivalent to routing along the corresponding ring segment.
Because our current focus is on SkipNets architecture and
locality properties, we do not discuss the use of range
queries for implementing various higher-level data query
operator

resolve multi-attribute queries, and introduces the concepts

of layer and crossing layer nearest neighbor into the
data structure. To decrease message passing numbers, an
approximate closest-point method is addressed that can
help routing a searching key to a node with a key value that
has the minimum distance between two keys. Each node
has O(m*l) neighbors for total m layers and l levels in
SkipMard. The expected time for a multi-attribute query is
O(log N) and the message passing number is O(log
N)+O(k)
Table 1. Table showing the various Skip Graph
Applications.

3.1 BENEFITS OF SKIP GRAPHS

IN DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS

Correctness
under
concurrency
As discussed in section 2, both insertion and
deletion can be comfortably done on skip
graph and search operations eventually find
their target node or correctly report that it is
not present in the skip graph. So any search
operation can be linearized with respect to
insertion and deletion. In effect, the skip
graph inherits the atomicity properties of its
bottom layer, with upper layers serving only
to
provide
increased
efficiency.
Concurrency is not handled properly in
various
applications.

Fault Tolerance

Skip Graphs++ [17] : Skip Graphs++ takes the

heterogeneity of P2P networks into account. It treats the
nodes differently and in Skip Graphs++ loads of nodes are
proportional to capacities of nodes. Powerful nodes afford
more loads and weak nodes afford fewer loads. Skip
Graphs++ may be a good tradeoff. The node starts the
search from its own search table, which will avoid the
problem of single point failure. The total number of the
nodes pointers is proportional to the capacity of the node.
It will be easier to achieve better load balance
SkipStream [14]: SkipStream, a skip graph based Peer-toPeer (P2P) on-demand streaming scheme with VCR
support to on-demand streaming services with VCR
functionality over ubiquitous environments address the
above challenges. In the design of SkipStream, we first
group users into a set of disjoint clusters in accordance with
their playback offset and further organize the resulted
clusters into a skip graph based overlay network.. It is a
distributed on-demand streaming scheduling mechanism to
minimize the impact of VCR operations and balance
system load among nodes adaptively. The average search
latency of SkipStream is O (log (N ) ) where N is the
number of disjoint clusters. We also evaluate the
performance of SkipStream via extensive simulations.
Experimental results show that SkipStream outperforms
early skip list based scheme DSL by reducing the search
latency 20%-60% in average case and over 50% in worst
case.
Skip mard [18]: A new multi-attribute P2P resource
discovery approach (SkipMard) that extends Skip Graph
structure to support multi-attribute queries. SkipMard
provides a prefix matching resource routing algorithm to

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Rainbow skip graph provides fault tolerance

properties of a skip graph [4]. Fault
tolerance of related data structures, such as
augmented versions of linked lists and
binary trees, has been well-studied by
Munro and Poblete [11]. The main question
is how many nodes can be separated from
the primary component by the failure of
other nodes, as this determines the size of
the surviving skip graph after the repair
mechanism finishes. It has been clearly
proved that even a worst-case choice of
failures by an adversary can do only limited
damage to the structure of the skip graph.
With high probability, a skip graph with n
nodes has an tQ(1/logn) expansion ratio,
implying that at most O(flog n) nodes can be
separated
.

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Volume 4 Issue 5, 390 - 394, 2015, ISSN:- 23198656

Random
failures
Rainbow skip graph, skipmards, skip webs
and skip nets efficiently handles random
failures, the situation appears even more
promising, experimental results presented in
[4,7,9] show that for a reasonably large skip
graph nearly all nodes remain in the primary
component until about two-thirds of the
nodes fail, and that it is possible to make
searches highly resilient to failure even
without using the repair mechanism by use
of
redundant
links.

Fast Search and Fault Tolerance

All the application of skip graph effienclty
works for fast searching and fault tolerance.
The average search in skip graph involves
only O(logn) nodes that most searches
succeed as long as the proportion of failed
nodes is substantially less than O(logn)
[1,8,9] . By detecting failures locally and
using additional redundant edges, one can
make searches highly tolerant to small
numbers of random faults. In general, results
cannot make as strong guarantees as those
provided by data structures based on explicit
use of expanders [6,7], but this is
compensated for by the simplicity of skip
graphs and the existence of good distributed
mechanisms for constructing and repairing
them

Load
balancing
skip index, skip graph++, inverted skip
graphs are best suitable application for load
balancing in didtributed networks like p2p.
In addition to fault-tolerance, a skip graph
provides a limited form of load balancing,
by smoothing out hot spots caused by
popular search targets. The guarantees that a
skip graph makes in this case are similar to
the guarantees made for survivability. Just
as an element stored at a particular node will
not survive the loss of that node or its
neighbours in the graph, many searches
directed at a particular element will lead to
high load on the node that stores it and on
nodes likely to be on a search path.
However, James has shown that this effect
drops off rapidly with distance elements that
are far away from a popular target in the
bottom-level list produce little additional

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load on average [4]. Further author has

provided two characterizations of this result.
The first shows that the probability that a
particular search uses a node between the
source and target drops off inversely with
the distance from the node to the target. This
fact is not necessarily reassuring to heavilyloaded nodes. Since the probability averages
over all choices of membership vectors, it
may be that some particularly unlucky node
finds itself with a membership vector that
puts it on nearly every search path to some
very popular target. Second characterization
addresses load balancing issue by showing
that most of the load-spreading effects are
the result of assuming a random membership
vector for the source of the search.

Low
hitting
times
skip streams provides Random walks on
expanders done in [7] have the property of
hitting a large set of nodes fast and with
high probability. This can be used for a
variety of applications such as load
balancing, gathering statistics on the nodes
of the skip graph and for finding highly
replicated.

High dimensional searching and range

queries
Skip index, rainbow skip graph, skip
streams, all provides a distributed highdimensional index structure based on peerto-peer overlay routing. A new routing
scheme is used to lookup data keys in the
distributed
index,
which
guarantees
logarithmic lookup and maintenance cost,
even in the face of skewed datasets.efficient
performance in dynamic load balancing and
handling complex and range queries.

4. CONCLUSIONS
SCOPE

AND

FUTURE

A short survey of skip graph with various application areas

provided in this paper, clearly indicate the usage and
advantages of using skip graphs in various distributed and
graph based applications. Since skip graphs provide the full
functionality of a balanced tree in a distributed system they
can be designed for use in searching peer-to-peer networks,
and by providing the ability to perform queries based on

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International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research

Volume 4 Issue 5, 390 - 394, 2015, ISSN:- 23198656
key ordering, they improve on existing search tools that
provide only hash table functionality. There are still many
unexplored areas where skip graphs can fine many useful
applications and one such application concurrent execution
of skip graph in distributed networks. Skip graphs can be
used to store the data in graphs and cluster the data and
above all retrieval will be very efficient and fast.

5. REFERENCES
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[9] Fuminori Makikawa, Tatsuhiro Tsuchiya, Tohru

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